Bark: Rants about the world in general.
Byte: Rants about videogames, technical matters and the IT Industry.
Hence, Bark and Byte.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

The political equivalent of the Model T Ford

I worry about America. I really do. They complain about 'turrurrists', extremists and how they're fighting for Freedom and Liberty, yet as soon as anyone raises any dissent, BANG, principles like Freedom of Speech go straight out of the window.

Case in point: A singer in Las Vegas praises Michael Moore's latest film, Farenheit 9/11 just before the climax of her performance, and what happens? The audience riots, and the hotel management chuck her out of the building. This is tantamount to Henry Ford's statement "You can have it in any colour, as long as it's black." What happened to Freedom and Liberty? They obviously don't apply if you say anything that can be considered anti-Government or anti-Bush.

America is becoming a nation of extremists; neo-conservative, white Christian extremists. Only these extremists are backed up by the largest Defence budget in the entire world, instead of a handful of Kalashnikovs and RPG-7s.

The American Dream is fast becoming The American Nightmare. Now Bush has started saber-rattling at Iran, saying the 9/11 hijackers passed through Iran prior to the attack. So why did you sort out Iraq and not Iran, eh, George? After all, Iran was in your so-called Axis Of Evil from the very start of your term as President. The history of the last three years reads like Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four. WAR IS PEACE. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. Keep finding new threats, keep waging war, and the public won't care that you never sorted out the original problems.

Is there peace and democracy is Afghanistan? Like fuck is there. The Taliban may not be in government, but it's they who continue to hold the real power - government officials can't even leave Kabul without risking death. Did we ever find Bin Laden? Nope - we don't even know for sure if he's dead or alive. Did we ever defeat Al Qaida? Nope - they're still going strong. But let's gloss over that, because we need to sort out Saddam and his Weapons Of Mass Destruction.

Oh, hang on, there aren't (and weren't) any. But it's okay, we got rid of a cruel and vindictive dictator, and gave peace and democracy to Iraq. Oh, no we haven't, have we? We've given them terrorism, extremism, and annihilated their infrastructure, whilst George W. Bush's friends line their pockets with lucrative reconstruction contracts and Iraq's oil is siphoned off. But let's not worry about that because Iran harboured Al Qaida terrorists before 9/11.